Lewis honoured by Europe’s premier sports newspaper

After missing out on the BBC Sports Personality of the Year, Lewis Hamilton can take comfort in the news that L’Equipe has voted him one of their top five sportsmen of the year.

Hamilton came fifth in the voting, behind sprinter Usain Bolt (who was voted the Champion of Champions), swimmer Michael Phelps, tennis star Rafael Nadal and MotoGP legend Valentino Rossi.

Does this mean the French love Lewis more than us Brits? Shurely shome mishtake.

F1 world champ honoured with place in wax museum

Lewis Hamilton is the latest star to be turned into a waxwork by Madame Tussauds. This week, the F1 world champion underwent 300 measurements in view of becoming part of the famous museum’s “Sports Zone” in 2009.

Many digital photos of Lewis wearing his McLaren racing overalls were also taken for reference, and other details, such as the colour of his eyes, were noted.

Hamilton’s wax double will reportedly cost £150,000, although it’s too early to say if the new model will be injected with as much personality as the original.

[F1 Fanatic]

Don’t cha wish your girlfriend was broody like me

Nicole Scherzinger has got her brood on. The Pussycat Doll admitted recently that she wants to have kids with boyfriend Lewis Hamilton:

“I am the happiest I have ever been right now. Lewis is such an amazing, humble and chivalrous guy. We would love to have beautiful angel babies together one day.

“We would sing Don’t Cha to them in my belly. Lewis knows all the words.”

Did I say kids? Excuse me. I meant ‘beautiful angel babies’, of course - celebrities don’t have ordinary kids like the rest of us.

Lil’ Lewis goes green

“You’re not going out dressed like that…”

Nicole Scherzinger has revealed that boyfriend Lewis Hamilton gets jealous when she wears racy outfits on stage.

“He says he wishes the outfits were for his eyes only,” she admitted.

The idiots are winning

Lewis Hamilton has been abused again by ‘racist f**kheads’ (our term).

The world champion was called a ‘monkey’ and a ’space chimp’ on Spanish newspaper 20 Minutos’s website.

The comments were submitted after the rumour about Hamilton’s plans to fly into space with Virgin Galactic - a story that McLaren’s press office tells us is absolutely untrue - was reported online by 20 Minutos.

Lewis favourite to win BBC gong, but does he deserve it?

Lewis Hamilton was favourite to win last year’s BBC Sports Personality of the Year, despite throwing away the world title in his first season in F1. In the end Lewis lost out to Joe Calzaghe, a boxer from Wales who is yet to taste defeat. So, two agonising second places in one year for Lewis - although losing out on the drivers’ title was, we imagine, slightly more galling than losing out to Calzaghe (and at least he didn’t lose out to Zara Phillips).

This time around, with the world title tucked into his racing overalls, Lewis is an even stronger favourite to win the Beeb’s annual award. But there is even stiffer competition in 2008, in the form of several gold medal-winning Olympians from Beijing (Chris Hoy and Rebecca Adlington offer the biggest threat), not to mention tennis star Andy Murray, who has had a fine year (see the full short-list here).

Does Lewis deserve to win the award? Does he have more personality than a daffy blonde swimmer or a dour Scottish tennis player? What constitutes personality anyway? So many questions, which you can answer by leaving a witty comment. If you can’t be arsed to leave a comment, you can just vote…

World champ loves his isolated winter training camp

Lewis Hamilton is loving McLaren’s week-long winter training camp at the Kuortane Sports Institute in western Finland. The annual event is scheduled so that McLaren’s drivers can work on their core strength and physical conditioning.

The remote location also means Lewis gets a few days to escape from the glare of the spotlight, before he returns home and prepares for the gruelling awards season (he has just been named on the BBC’s short-list for its Sports Personality of the Year).

“Travelling to Finland for our winter training camp is one of the best weeks of the year for me,” Lewis says.

The start of a beautiful rivalry…

Enjoy this extended footage from the 2007 Malaysian Grand Prix.

This was the second race of the season, and only the second GP of Lewis Hamilton’s F1 career. But was he overawed by Felpe Massa? Hell no. Great driving by the rookie to keep the Brazilian at bay.

For the record, Lewis finished second, behind then-teammate Fernando Alonso, with Massa in fifth.